Simon Heffer's Blog, page 2

If the ECB won't protect cricket's traditional values, the MCC must fill the void

W ith Alex Hales and Adil Rashid having announced that they will not be playing first-class cricket for the foreseeable future, the progress towards the disintegration of professional cricket as we know it has taken another considerable step.

Trim down our overblown councils before putting up taxes

W e are being told to prepare for substantial increases in our council tax , because public services have become so expensive. According to a survey of 113 councils published last Thursday, 95 per cent plan to increase council tax in April. It seems to have escaped the attention of...

How to rescue the County Championship from disappearing into mediocrity and irrelevance

T he Ashes debacle has, inevitably, started people thinking about how we better prepare cricketers for first-class cricket. Last month, Mark Arthur, the chief executive of Yorkshire, and Martyn Moxon, the county���s director of cricket and former opening batsman, suggested a three-division conference system to replace the existing two-division format....

Theresa May is wrong: being British is not about making money

T he outgoing German ambassador, Dr Peter Ammon, observed last week that some Brexiteers had a sense of national identity forged by the Second World War . This is not surprising. It was almost the last time we were encouraged to have a national identity ��� something membership of the...

ECB is trivialising Ben Stokes incident by lifting suspension - it shows unpleasant degree of arrogance towards the law

A man is innocent until proved guilty, and that applies to Ben Stokes. However, the notion that a man facing a charge of affray - a crime sufficiently serious to carry the possibility of a prison sentence for anyone convicted of it - should blithely be picked to play cricket...

ECB is trivialising Ben Stokes incident by lifting suspension - that shows an unpleasant degree of arrogance towards the law

A man is innocent until proved guilty, and that applies to Ben Stokes. However, the notion that a man facing a charge of affray - a crime sufficiently serious to carry the possibility of a prison sentence for anyone convicted of it - should blithely be picked to play cricket...

The digital Genghis Khans have more to do to stop social media from wrecking civilisation

L et us recall how a decade ago people known to be investment bankers started to introduce themselves at dinner parties as ���financial executives���, ���compliance officers��� or even ���accountants���, to avoid the inevitable loathing and obloquy that would come were the truth to be known. Mark Zuckerberg, the man who...

One of England's finest ever Ashes sides got beaten 4-0 Down Under - Australian conditions always expose flaws

S ince expectations of the England team in Australia were so low to begin with ��� and I can never recall them being lower ��� the 4-0 defeat was no surprise , not least because the players themselves exuded belief that they could not retain the Ashes.

Mrs May needs brighter talents in her top team

T hat Damian Green has not yet been replaced as First Secretary of State suggests either he is irreplaceable (unlikely); or was unnecessary (far more likely); or Mrs May has given up the fatuous exercise of the micro-reshuffle and has determined to reshape her administration into a serious governing and...

The Tories should take the fight to Labour ��� the Left is close to implosion

C hristmas being a time for nostalgia, let us reflect on how even the two worst Tory prime ministers of the 20th century, Ted Heath and John Major, would have dealt with a leader of the opposition such as Jeremy Corbyn, and the hopelessly divided and compromised rabble that is...